Tips for better bathroom lighting

Light Up Your Life

By Laurie Freehafer/Life@Home

I stopped by my friend’s house on my way to a job interview for a quick, last-minute once-over. As I headed for the powder room, she roughly intercepted me. “Wait!” she said, “You do not want this mirror. It’s way too realistic.” She steered me upstairs to the soft, forgivable light of her main bathroom. Where, I might add, I looked, at least to myself, most hire-worthy, bless her heart. “Realistic” is not always the goal.

Lighting can be complicated. A modern bathroom is multifunctional and as such, large or small, proper lighting requires some thought. Whether designing a new bathroom or upgrading an existing one, homeowners must consider economy, ecology, safety, function and style. It’s a lot to take in.

Task lighting begins at the sink, the bathroom’s major grooming destination. Most bathrooms today have a bar of lights over the mirror. In many cases, existing fixtures can be hung with the shades opening upward for an indirect light or pointing down to illuminate the vanity. If you are dissatisfied with your current reflection, a mere re-orientation — performed under safe, electricity-free conditions — might provide an improvement.

Soroko warns, however, that these vanity lights only illuminate the top half of your face, creating unflattering, distracting shadows. For shaving, applying makeup and other preening activities, the better option is to include lighting on both sides of the mirror. Consider using efficient LED lights here, which can be installed as spotlights, pendants or a vertical light bar.

Chromatherapy is lighting that affects moods. You can try the concept out for yourself at local Bath Expressions showrooms, as our model did with this Kohler DTV II shower. Scroll down for a link to our video on YouTube. Photo/video by Emily Jahn, modeling by Colleen Lovett.

LIGHTING THE BATH

Safety must be considered in slippery tubs and showers. Recessed ceiling lighting made specifically for wet areas can be installed directly over a bath/shower combo. But here, also, is your opportunity for some crazy fun. Sealed units can be installed right into the shower wall, allowing for custom spots of LED light in any color, virtually anywhere you want it, from head to toe. Blinking or pulsating lights may also be installed vertically behind sealed translucent panels in all four corners of the stall. Who says a shower can’t be festive?

The Bath Expressions showroom in Saratoga has jaw-dropping examples of bathtub and shower lighting. Manager Scott Lee took me on a tour of extravagant bathroom wonderland, introducing me to the industry term “chromatherapy,” or lighting that affects moods. For the futurists, high-end bathtubs now have built-in, customizable lights from rim to drain.

But to get a real feel for the chromatherapy concept, check out Kohler’s DTV shower series. These units are so advanced, so NASA, they almost defy description. Digital controls allow customization of a full spectrum of colors and an array of special lighting effects evoking sunrises and sunsets and rainstorms, any and all which can be programmed to coordinate with your favorite sequences of steam, sound effects and music. It is not unheard of to spend in the $20,000-plus range for top installations. Check out the YouTube videos and www.kohler.com for more information on the DTV II, and see one in action at Bath Expressions.

Oh, and if $20K well, impossible, click over to www.solutions.com, where about $15 will get you underwater, color-changing led lights you can toss right in the tub.

GENERAL LIGHTING

A good overhead light needs to be bright without being harsh. While incandescent bulbs diffused through your basic glass domes fit this description, compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs are available in virtually all of the sizes and configurations of their soon-to-be obsolete, inefficient predecessor. The selection of bathroom ceiling lights themselves is limitless. They can be flush mounted, recessed or chandeliers, and be plain vanilla or as conspicuous and dramatic as tastes, budget and space allow.

My own bathroom has the best overhead light available today. We installed a Solatube, which is literally a 12-inch tube from the bathroom ceiling to the roof, allowing an abundance of flattering daylight to illuminate the whole room sunrise to sunset. But at night? No problem; our Solatube has a light built right into it. Look for offers of free installation and take advantage of the generous Energy Star rebate. You talk about your chromatherapy!

JUST FOR PRETTY

For some real flair, check out these Schonbek Swarovski crystal decorative lights. Available at Wolberg Lighting. Photo by Emily Jahn.

Styles are unpredictable, according to Wolberg’s Soroko. “People are already moving away from oil-rubbed bronze finish,” a rustic look that was on many must-have lists for the last half-decade. Likewise, while manufacturers are still shipping once-essential brushed nickel, the shiny finish of good old chrome is making its way back into favor.

An exciting trend in bathroom lighting is to incorporate some low-wattage, purely decorative lights. Schonbek makes glamorous Swarovski crystal pendant lights, small enough for any bathroom, in colors and designs, ranging from sophisticated to whimsical, that will knock your socks off. At about $500 a pop, however, this is not your shabby chic lighting.

So look around your bathroom. Is your mirror flanked with a duo of buzzing, fluorescent tubes (like my friend’s powder room)? Do you shower with the curtain open just to read the directions on the shampoo? Do yourselves a favor and upgrade your bathroom lighting. Consider the simple addition of dimmers to provide the nuances offered by the more expensive lights.

Whatever you install, phase incandescent bulbs right out of the picture. While once the only option for low cost, flattering light, they are inefficient and environmental no-nos. Fortunately, improvements to compact fluorescent bulbs, now kinder to skin tones, dimmable, and dropping in price, are an attractive alternative to the century-plus old technology of Edison’s incandescent. Think safe, think flattering, think Energy Star.

Click here for a video of our model trying out the DTV-II showering system at Bath Expressions in Albany.